Teen fatally wounded in police-involved shooting on South Side

Chicago police investigate the scene of a police-involved shooting in the 5600 block of south State Street. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

A teenager was killed this afternoon in a police-involved shooting on the South Side in the city's Washington Park neighborhood.

The shooting happened shortly after 1 p.m. on the 5600 block of South State Street, according to police and Fire Media information. The teen was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital but was later pronounced dead, according to a preliminary statement from Police News Affairs.

He was identified as Christian Green, 17, of an unknown address, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Larry Martin said he was barbecuing outside this afternoon when he saw a young male sprinting away from Chicago police toward an empty lot across the street.

Then Martin said he heard several loud cracks and saw the teen buckle to the ground.

"I thought it was firecrackers or something," Martin said. But "they shot him."

Pat Camden, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, said that at about 1 p.m. a Second District tactical team saw an individual at 58th Street and Michigan Avenue in a school yard near where police had recently had a gang dispersal.

Camden said the officers wanted to talk to the male, who police believe is in his late teens. But he started walking away at a fast pace and then started running from police, Camden said.

He ran away from the school and by a liquor store at the corner of 57th and State Streets before heading across the street toward a vacant lot, Camden said.

At some point while he was running away from police, Camden said, a gun dropped from his waist band and he picked it up and pointed it at the officers.

The officer the teen pointed the weapon at was in fear of his life and discharged his weapon, according to the statement released by Police News Affairs.

"The officers fire," Camden said, recounting the events. "He's hit, he drops the gun again, tries to pick it up. Goes a couple feet away, falls to the ground."

Both News Affairs and Camden said a weapon was recovered, and Camden identified it as a semiautomatic hand gun.

Hours later, residents gathered at the edge of the red and yellow police tape that had been draped around the vacant lot and nearby intersection.

"I saw everybody running and I was so shocked, I saw them pull their guns out and start shooting," said Antoine Mills, who had just stopped at the liquor store when he saw the chase. "It's like the Wild West."

Louise Sanders, who lives across the street from the shooting, said she ran inside for cover when she heard the shots.

"There's gunshots all night and all day here," Sanders said. "It never stops. It never quits."

The shooting was being investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority.